These handsome stamps feature a Hawaiian rain forest painted by John D. Dawson to remind us all of the important of preserving this habitat for the plants and animals that need shelter from civilization.

from the US Postal Service site:
Featuring a Hawaiian rain forest, the 2010 Nature of America issuance is the 12th stamp pane in an educational series focusing on the beauty and complexity of major plant and animal communities in the United States.

The setting for the colorful acrylic painting on the stamp pane is a rain forest on Hawaiʻi’s largest island, which is also named Hawaiʻi. Artist John D. Dawson painted the scene and each of the previous ones in the Nature of America series.

To illustrate the spectacular biodiversity of a Hawaiian rain forest, the artist depicted more than 24 different species. The scene itself is completely imaginary. Such a dense grouping was necessary in order to show as many plants and animals as possible in the stamp pane format. Even so, every species depicted could be encountered in a Hawaiian rain forest, and all of the species and their interactions are appropriate and were recommended by scientists.

A description of the rain forest and a numbered key to the artwork appear on the back of the stamp pane, along with a corresponding list of common and scientific names for 24 selected species.

“Artist and historian Herb Kawainui Kane, who has dedicated much of his life to studying Hawaiian culture and history, created the painting on the stamp. In the art, a surfer rides a wave on a long board, a popular choice among surfers for centuries. Next to him, two people paddle an outrigger canoe to shore. Kane has extensive knowledge and experience in surfing, a favorite pastime, and in canoe construction, a skill he developed from building a traditional sailing canoe himself.”

The US Postal Service has put out some terrific Hawaiian stamps in the past few years and none will bring a smile like this new strip of thirty two cent stamps for postcards.

In this age of emails and texting take a moment to send a sunny postcard to a friend and adorn it with one of these so called Aloha shirts. You will be sending love and aloha to someone’s mailbox where a hand written message is now as rare as a four-leaf clover.

Hikiau Heiau, located on Kealakekua Bay, in South Kona, was a luakini temple where human and animal blood was used as sacrifice by the Ancient Hawaiians.

Sitting on the south end of the bay, at coordinates 19°28′31″N 155°55′9″W, it is associated with funeral rites. The large platform made of volcanic rock was said to be over 16 feet high, 250 feet long, and 100 feet wide. It has been established to be the first place that Hawaiians have sustained contact with Western outsiders. Cook’s journals claimed there were four villages with eighty houses each with several thousand native Hawaiian villagers when he landed living along the three miles of shoreline.

A plaque commemorates Hawaii’s first Christian funeral conducted by
Captain Cook on January 28, 1779 mere weeks before his own death.

Across the Bay is the Captain Cook Monument that was erected in 1874 to mark the place Captain James Cook was killed on February 14, 1779. It is only accessible by boat but makes for a lovely journey through the clear waters often accompanied by dolphins and colorful fish visible to paddlers.